1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a turntable, particularly to a turntable with a light transmission round platter and a light collection spindle, wherein the light transmission round platter is connected to a light collection spindle via a conjunctive area, and wherein incident light from the bottom or lateral side may be collected by a frosted portion of the surface of the light collection spindle and travel through the original smooth and transparent portion of the surface of the light collection spindle which is functioned as a light guiding area so as to lighten the conjunctive area.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The round platter of a turntable is usually made of metal, plastic, wood, glass or other hard materials, as a conventional turntable illustrated in to FIG. 1. In FIG. 1, a round platter 1 of the turntable is connected to a spindle 2 of the turntable by a screw 3. A motor 4 then rotates a gear chamber 6 via a coupling device 5 and further via spindle holder 7 holding the spindle 2 so as to drive the round platter 1 to rotate. The above-mentioned components are enclosed by a box 8. Support rollers may also be arranged underneath the round platter 1. The round platter 1 may be arranged within the box 8 or exposed from the top side of the box 8.
A turntable capable of turning at various angles is utilized in taking 360 degree photography, hemispherical or spherical 3D photography to generate huge amount of still images. Then, those still images with pure-white-background or automatic background removal are generated before creating 3D animation or a 3D model so as to save time in removing background. The light transmission round platter is common used for assisting in taking photography and may be made of plastic or glass that are transparent or translucent. Generally, a plurality of pulleys are held against each rim of the light transmission round platter and drive the centerless light transmission round platter to rotate.
In FIG. 2, the centerless light transmission round platter 9 is equipped with a bottom light or a back light lower than the round platter 9. The timing pulleys 10 and 11 is in contact with the rim of a centerless light transmission round platter 9 from at the right side, and idlers 12 and 13 is also in contact with the centerless light transmission round platter 9 from the left side. Plastic rolling balls 14, 15, 16 and 17 are utilized to support the bottom of the centerless light transmission round platter 9 near an edge. The timing pulleys 10 and 11 are entangled with a timing belt 18. A motor 19 drives the timing belt 18 as well as the timing pulleys 10 and 11 to rotate the centerless light transmission round platter 9. The upper edges of the timing pulleys 10 and 11 and the idlers 12 and 13 are respectively sleeved with rubber rings directly contacting the centerless light transmission round platter 9. Each of the lower edges of the timing pulleys 10 and 11 is sleeved by the timing belt 18. Refer to FIG. 3, which is a diagram schematically showing a conventional turntable with a centerless light transmission round platter driven by several motors. In FIG. 3, rubber rollers 21, 22 and 23 are held against the rim of a centerless light transmission round platter 20 in different directions. Motors 24, 25 and 26 simultaneously drive the rubber rollers 21, 22 and 23 to rotate, and the centerless light transmission round platter 20 to rotate. The bottom of the centerless light transmission round platter 20 near an edge is supported by plastic rolling balls 27, 28 and 29. The turntable in FIG. 4 is basically similar to that in FIG. 1 except that the round platter in FIG. 4 has a light source 30 thereon and is covered by a translucent cover 31. Thus, pure-white-background images or the background removal images of the object to be photographed on the translucent cover 31 may be automatically generated. Refer to FIG. 5, which is a diagram schematically showing a conventional turntable with a light transmission round platter 32, a transparent spindle 33 and a bottom light 34. The turntable in FIG. 5 is basically similar to that in FIG. 1, except that a light transmission round platter 32 is utilized and connected to a transparent spindle 33. Further, a light source 34 is arranged under the light transmission round platter 32. The bonding between the light transmission round platter 32 and the transparent spindle 33 may be achieved by gluing or plastic injection forming a one-piece component. However, the transparent spindle 33 is not frosted and the transparent spindle 33 is unlikely to concentrate the light emitted by the light source 34 to lighten the dark spot area 35 of the light transmission round platter 32, resulted in dark area in generated images if the dark spot area 35 is not covered by the object to be photographed.
In FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, rubber rings or rubber rollers are used for holding against the rim of the light transmission round platter from different directions, driving the light transmission round platter to rotate in a centerless manner. Although there is no dark area during photography, slight slip still takes place during synchronous driving with the rubber rings/rubber rollers holding against the rim of the light transmission round platter. Further, it is hard to guarantee a perfect round rotation without slip and a precise rotation radius as the rubber rings/rubber rollers are simultaneously pressed. Therefore, the turntables shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 need calibrating to correct the rotation angle thereof. However, rotation errors still occur in such a case. In FIG. 4, a light source and a translucent cover are placed on a round platter of a common turntable. Slips may take place between the translucent cover and the round platter when the turntable starts or stops rotating. Besides, it is difficult for the translucent cover to carry a heavier object to be photographed. Further, as the light source rotates together with the round platter, power cannot be supplied to the rotating light source continuously and stably. The turntable shown in FIG. 5 has no problems on such slips and inaccurate rotation of the turntables in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, and discontinuous power supply of the light source on the turntable in FIG. 4. Although the dark conjunctive area is generated due to the binding between the light transmission round platter and the transparent spindle, it can be solved by adding another translucent platter onto the light transmission round platter. However, the light collection spindle of the present invention may lighten the dark conjunctive area and solve the problem more effectively.
Refer to FIG. 6 a diagram schematically showing a conventional turntable with a light transmission round platter, a transparent spindle and a side light. The turntable in FIG. 6 is basically similar to the turntable in FIG. 5 except the light source is a side light in FIG. 6 rather than a bottom light in FIG. 5.